> According to Professor Grout, equal temperment was theorized in the
> early 16th century and "apparently in actual use for lutes, viols and
> other fretted instruments during the 16th and 17th centuries" and came
> to be used for keyboard instruments in the early 18th century. Bach's
> "Wohltemperierte Klavier" was published in 1722, for instance.
> So I guess I don't understand Kevin's assertion that there was no
> harmony before "tempered intonation", or he means something different
> than I understand by the term "tempered intonation".
The way I understand it equal temperment is only necessary for
instruments that play more than one note at a time, and that leaves out
sectional harmony altogether, as in choral music and string sections.
Surely there was choral harmony before equal temperment.
Clay